COP28: A Debate Between Soft Commitments vs Decisive Action

By Kristen Cheriegate: Senior Policy Analyst | Ms. Cheriegate navigates  through the policy world to obtain real-world solutions, funding resources, and networks with potential partners to provide more services to low- and moderate-income households. The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Summit, the 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP28), took place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) between …

Heat Pump Installations Slow, Impeding Biden’s Climate Goals

By Santul Nerkar and Madeleine Ngo  Originally published in The New York Times, Nov. 9, 2023  More Americans are buying heat pumps, an environmentally friendly alternative to furnaces and air-conditioners that can significantly lower monthly energy bills. But the pace of installations has slowed in the past year, posing an obstacle to the Biden administration’s climate plans.  Rising interest rates and inflation combined …

Case Study: IRA, BIL Bringing Big Pots of Money to Green Affordable Housing

By Mark Fogarty  NH&RA November 2023 If Timed Right, Financial “Braiding” Techniques May Cover Whole Cost of Retrofits There’s a brave new world of opportunities for “green” multifamily affordable housing renovation and development coming with the ever-quickening ascendancy of green buildings. This is according to one of the early adopters of clean energy solutions in multifamily, Ravi Malhotra. New pots of money …

Old public housing photo

HUD Launches New Program to Pay for Multifamily Green Rehab

The U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently announced the availability of  landmark funding through the new Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP) to support retrofits for HUD-assisted multifamily affordable housing (MFAH) properties.    The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provided HUD with approximately $837M in grant funding and $4B in loan authority for the GRRP. This program simultaneously invests in utility efficiency, renewable …